jueves, 26 de abril de 2018

Realism in the High Victorian
period and the intense psychological character studies from the perspectives of
George Eliot and Charles Dickens.

The aim of this essay is
going to focus on Realism in the High Victorian period and to explain why
realist artists were especially known for their psychological character
studies. First, the essay will start by introducing the Victorian period.
Secondly, it will analyse how Realism influenced English literature. Finally,
it will discuss the psychology of the characters from the perspectives of
George Eliot and Charles Dickens. In the case of Dickens it will specially
focus on the psychology of the main characters using the book of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) and Bleak House (1853) and in the case of
Eliot, it will pay attention to women’s characterisation using the book of Middlemarch (1871).

The Victorian period represents the reign of Queen
Victoria of Great Britain (1837-1901), some experts anticipate the beginning of
the period, characterized by important changes in cultural sensitivities and
political concerns, to the enactment of the Reform Act of 1832. It is a period
where many changes are produced: from rural villages with couch-and-four (a
carriage pulled by four horses and driven by one driver) that circulate on
their roads, to large and modern cities with complex railway systems intertwined
with each other. This period is also characterised by the overcrowded houses,
where larger families live. In other words, significant changes brought
challenging problems and multiple ambiguities difficult to solve. (Whitla,
2014).

From the cultural point of view, Victorianism extends
from late Romanticism to the Edwardian era of the twentieth century. Moreover,
this period is not only found in England, but also in Scotland, Wales and
Ireland and later in the century, it extends to India and other parts of the
British Empire. The term Victorian was applied to art as a set of styles and
fashions represented in the architecture, writing, and way of speaking proper
of the period. Although it was not recognized after years later, the year of
the Great Exhibition in 1851 (where the inventions of the Industrial Revolution
were taking place to show the progress of the growing human industry and its
unlimited imagination through machinery, manufactured products, and
sculptures), was the apex of the Victorian era. In this exhibition, British
people celebrated the success of the national institutions, the wealth of
commerce in the British Empire, the progress that steam power was having in
their industry, and the success of international trade (Whitla, 2014).

Once presented the Victorian period, I will analyse
Realism as a literary movement. Mullan states that realism is often thought to
be a tendency of the Victorian fiction, and it is certain that its first use in
literature was to express ‘the loyal representation of the real world’. In an
essay on the artist and critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) George Eliot claimed
that realism was the doctrine where truth and beauty can be found by doing a
humble analysis of nature. Moreover, she believed that it couldn’t be substituted
by the imagination of uncertain feelings, that is to say, Naturalism, the other
literary movement of this period. Eliot specially insisted on the modesty that
this realism must have, she wanted to focus her attention on the ‘ordinary’. In
her first novel Adam Bede (1859), she
wanted to prove the truthfulness she was aiming, to the quality. To do this,
she describes many Dutch paintings that ‘high-minded people’ ignored. She found
sympathy in those faithful paintings of a monotonous home activity and she
tried to transmit this feeling in her novel.

By using this type of comparisons and descriptions
faithful to reality, she gave a special value to the accurate presentation of
appearances. However, she thought that characterisation was more than a simple
description, it was the key of realism. In 1856, she criticized Charles Dickens
in a famous article for being considered the most representative of this style
of society’s descriptions. But unable to pass from the humorous and superficial
to the emotional and tragic without being as transcendent as he was before in
his artistic truthfulness, George Eliot said that Dickens did a ‘frequently
false psychology’, and it was more evident when he described lower class people,
such as poor children, artisans or melodramatic boatmen. For her, Dickens was
not a realist. Henry James, a later American author between literary realism
and literary modernism, will later describe him as ‘the greatest of superficial
novelists’ (Mullan, 2014).

Moreover, Dicken’s truth to reality troubled seriously
the critics of his day as it has troubled readers since he wrote his novels.
Dickens himself sometimes asserted the reality of his fiction, as for instance,
in the third edition of Oliver Twist
(1841), where he had to respond to critics saying that he presented criminals
and prostitutes as the faithful reality. In this book in particular, criminals
are badly treated and represented, but nevertheless, prostitutes, as Nancy,
have a sympathetic representation. Another good example of this appears in Bleak House (1852-3) when Dickens turned
to the body of Jo, a crossing poor sweeper, to address wealthy people of his
own society.

Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my
lords and gentlemen. Dead, right reverends and wrong reverends of every order.
Dead, men and women, born with heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying
thus around us every day (Dickens, 1853, p. 892).

Despite Eliot’s criticism and the added difficulty
involved in analysing the descriptions of Dicken’s characters, T.C. Renzi
asserts that characters’ descriptions can be analysed. He says that main
characters are the most important characters in Dicken’s descriptions.
Therefore, their psychological and physical makeup must contain some degree of
depth, in order to make them more interesting. Moreover, since main characters
are the most influential during the story, their beginnings may contain prominent
features that will later be clarified, developed and exploited in succeeding
situations. One of these examples can be seen in Martin Chuzzlewit when Dickens introduces the character of Mr.
Pecksniff, a spurious architect.

Mr. Pecksniff was a moral
man... Perhaps there never was a more moral man than Mr. Pecksniff.... [H]e had
a Fortunatus's purse of good sentiments on his inside... [He] was like the girl
in the fairy tale, except that if they were not actual diamonds that fell from
his lips, they were the very brightest paste... He was a most exemplary man:
fuller of virtuous precept than a copy-book. Some people likened him to a
direction-post, which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes
there... His very throat was moral. You saw a good deal of it. You looked over
a very low fence of white cravat (whereof no man had ever beheld the tie, for
he fastened it behind), and there it lay... serene and whiskerless before you
(Dickens, 1867, p. 354).

In this quote, it can be seen that Dickens uses
several literary devices to describe him and make the reader think in a
particular perspective about the architect. One of them is the third-person
narrator in order to use sarcasm, that is to say, Dickens uses verbal irony
that contrasts with what is meant to be. With the purpose of ridiculing
Pecksniff 's hypocrisy: what it may sound as a compliment, such as ‘moral man’,
‘sleek’ or ‘oily’ actually implies that he is a phony person, a trait that
presages his motivations in later actions (Renzi, 2010).

Besides irony, Dickens uses literary devices to
describe his characters through implied comparisons to other authors’
characters. As for instance, when he describes Pecksniff as ‘fuller of virtuous
precept than a copy-book’ in the quote, faintly alluding to Polonius in the
book of Hamlet, who spoke with
epithets without coherence. Furthermore, Dickens also makes a public display of
what morality had to be while at the same time he is hiding his dark side from
the others. The narrator finishes by embodying Pecksniff’s hypocrisy
physically, in his way of dressing and in his appearance. After establishing
this character’s basic personality, Dickens uses these central traits to
recreate new situations in order to expose the psychological portrait of the
character (Renzi, 2010). It is for these reasons that the complexity of the
main characters’ descriptions had such importance in his works. For instance,
he does not simply say that Pecksiff is a completely hypocritical snob, he
tries to show the reader (thanks to his actions) how the character really is,
showing at the same time one of his best skills.

Another type of characterization that realists carried
out was women’s characterization. K. Hughes considers Eliot as one of the best
representatives of this type of characterisation. Eliot’s attitude towards
women’s rights, education and place in society, and how this attitude is
expressed in the psychological portrays of the characters, were her most
valuable features. One of these examples can be found in one of her books, Middlemarch. At the end of the story,
the author tells us what will later happen to the heroine of the story,
Dorothea Brooke. As a young woman at the beginning of the story, Dorothea
compares herself to Spanish Saint Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century mystic and
social reformer who wanted to make a better world. However, Dorothea was born
three centuries later, in a highly materialistic century in which there was no coherent
social faith or order that could teach her soul how to improve the world.

By consequence, Dorothea ends her life married and with
the despair that nobody will remember her. In spite of this fact, Eliot makes
us see that she was such a wonderful person that readers do not have to feel disappointed
at her for being condemned to a monotonous life. It is obvious that the heroine
didn’t achieve the greatness and importance she wanted to have, but the
day-to-day acts she performed, such as her kindness to people, had a profound
effect within her domestic style of life. Therefore, the role she played as
wife, mother, and friend, was, in some circumstances, her best and most
valuable feature (Hughes, 2014).

But the effect of her being
on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the
world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill
with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived
faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs” (Eliot, 1997, p.785).

In sum, this essay discussed
the different types of characterisation that realist writers realised in their
works and showed the importance of the psychological character studies. It also
analysed two types of descriptions, in the case of Dickens, it has been the
main characters’ descriptions and in the case of Eliot, it has been women’s
descriptions. Last, but not least, this essay has exposed the differences
between both writers, especially in the critic done by Eliot, where she accused
Dickens of doing frequently false psychology.

Would
tell them how her sister stood In deadly peril to do her good, And win the
fiery antidote:

Then joining hands to little
hands560

Would bid them cling together,

“For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray, 565

To lift one if one totters down,

To
strengthen whilst one stands.”

[END OF PAPER]

In this essay, I will
discuss an extract of the poem ‘Goblin Market’ of Christina Rossetti. First, I
will analyse the structure, genre, and theme of the poem and its relation to
its historical moment. Secondly, I will do a close reading of the poem,
analysing it stanza by stanza and taking into account the different rhetorical
devices that appear in itself. Finally, I will give a general opinion of the
poem.

Goblin Market is a narrative
poem composed in 1859 and published in 1862. It was written in the Victorian
Age (1830-1901), a period of industrialization, where there was a class
consciousness and where women began to be taught in other things apart from
music or drawing. The main themes are numerous in this poem, one of them is
women and femininity, because ‘Goblin Market’ is a woman’s world where there
are no male characters and this is going to be very relevant in the development
of the story. Another theme is the sexual one, which, despite being a poem
dedicated for children according to the author, there is an erotic imagery, as
for instance goblin’s fruits used as a metaphor for sex, and there is also a sensual
language used between the two sisters. Fruits can also be seen as drugs, as one
of the sisters (Laura) became addicted to them, so we can say that the theme of
drugs is also presented in this poem. Finally, the last of the main themes I
can mention is the theme of violence, presented in the part where Lizzie is
attacked by the goblins or in eating the food if it is interpreted as the loss
of virginity.

Most of the poem is written in
iambic tetrameter, but its rhyme is irregular, although there are innumerable
couplets in the poem. The six stanzas we are going to analyse have an irregular
amount of lines, being the first stanza shorter than the other ones. The
narrator of this poem is, in general, an objective third-person narrator who is
describing what the two sisters are doing, although in the extract, we see that
there are some exceptions, as for instance, in lines 511 and 512, where the
narrator breaks out with this and addresses to Laura directly, losing the
objectivity.

The extract of the poem we are about to analyse belongs to the last part
of the poem, I am going to collect the main ideas of each stanza in order to
give my own opinion. On the one hand, the first stanza can be seen from a
sexual point of view, in which fruits can have been used as a metaphor for sex.
In the stanza, we see that Lizzie enters the house inviting Laura to lick up
the goblin fruit juice off her. However, seeing the language used by Lizzie
asking Laura to do it, we see that it’s pretty erotic ‘Hug me, kiss me, suck my
juices’ (l.468) repeating nearly the same structure (parallelism) just a few
lines later ‘Eat me, drink me, love me’ (l. 471). Lizzie was even wounded by
the goblins, but with this figurative language, the meaning of being reunited
changes for a great reason to be happy to a sexual one. If, on the other hand,
we see this stanza as it were for children, the meaning changes and we only see
the love between sisters, that is to say, Lizzie saving Laura from death, and
the bravery of Lizzie for having fought against the goblins.

The second stanza of the extract is about how the reencounter is
produced between both sisters and how Laura drinks the juice. As in the first
stanza, we can see the second one from two points of view, in spite of the fact
that the erotic one, in my view, prevails from the other. Laura is worried
about Lizzie because she didn’t know if she had eaten ‘the fruit forbidden’ (l.
479) (religious reference from the story of Adam and Eve). Afterwards, there is
a contrast that Laura makes comparing herself to Lizzie ‘Must your light like
mine be hidden’ (l.480) and ‘Your young life like mine be wasted’ (l.481) transmitting
pessimism about her situation. She continues emphasizing her bad situation and
she doesn’t want to drag Lizzie down. Then we see how Laura returns to life
thanks to the goblin’s juice. The word ‘kiss’
is repeated three times, making an emphasis in the sisterhood love, and we
observe that Laura returns to life because she is able to cry again. In my
opinion, now she is crying because of the relief of being alive, so it is a
good aspect. In the final lines of the stanza I believe there is an element of
greed and desire, especially it says ‘She kissed and kissed her with a hungry
mouth’ (l.492), but at the same time she’s transmitting affection and gratitude
to her sister that has saved her.

In the third stanza, we see that this juice doesn’t taste good and she
acts as she is possessed when she drinks it, suffering because of it in burning
her lips and it is ‘wormwood to her tongue’ (l.494). I’ve interpreted this
passage of the stanza as some kind of cure or sacrilege done to a person
possessed by an evil spirit that wants to take out all the evilness of his
body. In the second part of the stanza, Laura is described with several
similes, as for example in line 503 ‘Or like an eagle when she stems the
light’, describing her liberation from the poison, from the evil spirits. She
is compared to ‘a mane of horses’, ‘an eagle’, ‘a flag’ and even to the Olympic
torch (in lines 500 and 501), all of them referring to her new freedom and
liberation from the goblin’s poison. This new freedom of Laura made me think
about all the social movements led by women in the Victorian era in order to
have equal opportunities to work and to have similar salaries as men. For this
reason, I consider that the author is referring to femininity and women’s
liberation. Furthermore, the author can be also referring to the exclusion of
women from the male-dominated artistic world during this era, like Christina
Rossetti herself with her brothers as, despite the fact that they encouraged
her writing, they did not allow her to become an official member of their
artistic movement.

Now the fourth stanza deals
with Laura’s healing start to act with a ‘lesser flame’ (l.509). Nevertheless,
the most important fact of this stanza is the narrator’s intrusion in the
argument of the story, losing thereby, all the objectiveness of the narration.
It seems to me that the narrator did this so as to do more emphasis on the fact
that Laura made a bad decision. He talks in the first person and directly to
Laura, creating at the same time a climax in the narration. Another point of
view to see this part of the poem is the religious one, when God expels Eve
from the Garden of Eden because she ate the forbidden fruit, in this case, the
voice of the narrator would be God and Laura would be Eve. Further on, there
are again several similes comparing her struggle to live to ‘watch-tower’
(l.514), a ‘mast’ (l.516) or a ‘wind-uprooted tree’ (l.517). All these things
are fighting against natural forces, so personally, I think that the author is
trying to emphasize the difficulty of this struggle against life because
natural forces can be stopped. And suddenly, Laura loses her consciousness or
‘spun about’ (l.518) and she casts down. In the final lines of the stanza, the
author makes more dramatism and suspense, we don’t know if she feels ‘pleasure’
or ‘anguish’ and with a final rhetorical question, ‘Is it death or is it life?’
we don’t even know if those were her last feelings. I believe that in this
stanza Christina Rossetti wanted to make an atmosphere of suspense and it is
the exact moment where the climax is produced. In relation to the style, I’ve
realized that the lines becone shorter and shorter at the end of the stanza and
this creates a more suspense effect.

In the following stanza, the
poet will answer the previous rhetorical question, answering ‘Life out of
death’ (l.524), nonetheless in a confusing way, because if the meaning is that
Laura came back to life, it can be seen as a miracle. On the contrary, if it is
a figurative way, there is no miracle. Lizzie gives her water and she cries
again and the atmosphere changes into a better one. Nature returns to the scene
to play an important role and now it is dawning. There is an important aspect
in this stanza and it’s the fact that Laura is becoming younger and returning
to life, fresh as ‘lilies’ (l.536) and her hair is returning to be blonde
(before it was grey). In my view, Laura is returning to life and as in the same
poem it is said ‘Laura awoke as from a dream’ (l.537), in other words, as it
was before, as if the whole story had been a nightmare from which she had finally
woken up. All this happiness is now reflected in nature, in a spring
atmosphere, ‘Her breath was sweet as May’ (l.541). If we consider as valid the
religious background we mentioned before, we can see this as the resurrection
of Laura and her return to a perfect life.

In the last part of the poem,
there is a flash forward ‘Days, weeks, months, years’ (l.543) and there is a
contrast between past and present that I am going to explain. Firstly, we see
that both sisters are now married with children, so femininity became again a
main theme in the poem. In my opinion, this aspect is relevant, because men
aren’t mentioned in the whole poem, but after all, we observe that there is a man’s
influence in this woman’s world. We can interpret this fact as a good or bad
aspect. On the one hand, if we see it in a pessimistic way, we can believe that
the only man’s influence is related to marriage and their only function is to
have children. On the other hand, we can see it as the fact that they also
bring happiness to women, because together they are creating a family.
Nonetheless, having in mind Rossetti’s personal life and how her brothers and
father didn’t let her participate in the literary world at first, I would see
this part of the poem in a pessimistic way. Then, Laura and Lizzie tell their
children the story in a moral way, showing them how important the love between
sisters is. Laura also talks about Lizzie’s heroism for having saved her. In
line 556 the word ‘men’ is mentioned
to say that they didn’t sell the fruit that goblins sell in any town, meaning
that this fruit wasn’t normal, because as it is said in the poem, the fruit
tasted like honey, but it was ‘poisoned in blood’ (l.555). Finally, the poem
ends by repeating the story to the children and saying ‘there is no friend like
a sister’, which is the moral of the story,

To sum up, this extract of the
poem can be criticised and analysed from several points of view. However, in my
view, I wouldn’t consider it as a poem for children, because of all its erotic
background: related to the fruit and the sisters action, in spite of the fact
that there is a moral conclusion in the last stanza. I have also found quite
interesting the fact that it was a woman’s world and having into account that
it was written in the Victorian era, I have realised about the possible
difficulties of writing it. Religion has also been another main theme in this
final extract of the poem and we can consider it as an act of social redemption
of Laura for having eaten the fruit, as Eve in the Garden of Eden.

domingo, 8 de abril de 2018

This essay will
discuss the different options that the different measures that a government
should take to improve youth employment. According to statistics, unlike what
happened years ago, the average age at which young Spanish people find their
first job is now 23, either because of the unwillingness of finding a job or
because of the precariousness of these jobs. It is clear that this could have a
long-term impact on the country’s economy and affect the pension system. It is
therefore essential that governments find ways to reverse this situation.

To begin with, young
people would choose the right job, if they knew what it was about while they
were studying. Most undergraduates think that they will be working in the area
in which they are studying. However, this is not always as they thought and
sometimes they choose a degree that later does not fit with the work they want.
For this reason, the government should support employers’ visits to schools in
order to explain more about the jobs they do in their own companies.

Another solution for
students would be doing work-related subjects at school. By doing this, students would be able to do a better job interview and they would get a
job more easily. Most of the time, the employee is prepared for the job, but at
the time of the interview he or she usually gets nervous and this is when this
type of subjects can be useful. Governments should promote this sort of
subjects at school in order to improve these job skills.

Setting up these kinds
of programmes could be expensive at first, but once the government did this,
the number of prepared students would increase and the youth unemployment would
decrease. However, governments might choose the less expensive programme, that
is to say, the visits from employers, since it would cost them anything most
times and it can be also more efficient in the long term.

jueves, 5 de abril de 2018

What will happen
with UK higher education after Brexit?

In this essay it is going to be discussed the future
of the university education after Brexit. First, it is going to be done a brief
introduction of the relation between Britain and the rest of Europe in higher
education. Secondly, the essay will analyse how the students of both the EU and
UK will be affected, especially in the Erasmus Programme, taking into account
the possible consequences of leaving the programme. Thirdly, it will be
discussed how Brexit will affect education in the particular case of Scotland
and suggest the potential strategies to develop the education system. Finally,
it is going to be used Romero’s personal experience to show the first effects
of Brexit on individual students.

The UK’s vote to leave the EU has caused
widespread consternation and has weakened the relations between Europe and the
UK. Among other features, the higher education system is one of the main
important aspects that will be affected by this situation. In the past decades,
EU universities and British universities have had many exchange and cooperation
programmes, one of the most popularis the Erasmus Programme. This programme has
not only helped the universities to deepen academic research and improve new teaching
methods, but it has also made students have more opportunities to receive
better education resources. However, Brexit has changed this favourable
cooperation and it is estimated to have even worse impacts in the long term.

To begin with, we are going to write about the EU and UK students’ problems in studying abroad in
Europe. In demographic terms, UK universities will be affected because they
have a EU undergraduate’s dependence, and leaving the EU, they will have reduced a number of excellent students from
European countries. Moreover, another reason why EU students can decide
not to come to UK universities is the financial one. Even though it is already
known that the EU will give less financial support to EU students who go to the
UK (because it will be no longer in the EU), the current concern of students is
if they will be required to pay the full international student’s fee. If this
occurs, the number of these students will dramatically decrease in UK
universities. Furthermore, UK universities will also
suffer potential consequences for the decline in revenues (Mayhew, 2017). At the same time, UK
students will also have the same main issues. Nevertheless, in the case of
British students it will not be so much a financial problem but a problem of
having fewer opportunities when they want to pursue advanced studies.

In addition to the
reduction of the number of excellent students, universities’ academic research may
also be affected. In previous years, numerous
cooperation programmes were established in an attempt to encourage academic
research and faculty development. Such collaborations have largely improved
research-oriented universities capabilities. Once lost the support from EU, UK
universities may not satisfy the needs of the nation and society in the long
term. Furthermore, it will be difficult for universities to hire and retain
staff from EU countries. Overall, the impact on the ability of UK universities
to develop will be huge. After Brexit, UK needs to deal with how to ensure
adequate funding for research (Mayhew,
2017).

Facing such negative
impacts, the Scottish government has shown its objection to Brexit in terms of
education. The government released the information that its universities will continue
to welcome students from Europe despite the threat from Brexit. Scotland is
proud of its thriving higher education and recognises the social economic and
cultural benefits. International students have made a huge contribution to
Scotland. The government believes in its excellence in education and the proud
of its deep sense of internationalism. Although worrying signs show that Brexit
is making Scotland less attractive for EU students, the reduction in the number
of applicants to Scottish universities has had less impact than in England.
This has also shown the damage being done by the decision to leave the EU (Anon, 2017). Overall, the Scottish government’s attitudes and
response towards Brexit’s influence on the education system suggest that
improvements are needed to make up for the loss of excellent students,
resources and experts from the EU.

To improve the education system, UK
universities should try to use strategies to develop its higher education
system for the longer term. Firstly, UK universities’ administration should
take the positive advantage of its program duration to attract non-European
students. The negative impact of Britain's harsh study abroad policy is less
than the positive attraction of having a shorter time to complete a degree. The
undergraduate program is usually 3 years for international students and 1 to 2
years for post-graduate. Despite the fact that the visa threshold is strict,
the shorter academic structure is still an important factor in attracting more
international students’ interests. Furthermore, Brexit will also bring
opportunities and encouragements to the development of the British education
system under great challenges. UK universities may seek broader international
cooperation without losing the opportunity to develop their overseas education
industry. Although Brexit will not have much impact on the overall development
of higher education in Britain, it is undeniable that Brexit has still brought
about major changes in the field of scientific research in the United Kingdom.
Britain should take the path of bilateral and international cooperation and innovation
in the future.

From personal experience, even though if Brexit has
still not happened, it has already affected me. As a current Erasmus student in
the University of Edinburgh, I can say that I have had fewer opportunities to
choose a university in England than other partners in previous years, with this
I mean that for instance, in places such as London there was only one place to
go for the Erasmus and it was for one single semester. This was not the case of
Scotland, where I have had the same opportunities to choose a university than
my other partners had in recent years. In the financial point of view, my
scholarship has been affected, because the United Kingdom has passed from a
first category destination for Erasmus students to a second one, so I received
less money from the EU to go to the UK. Moreover, accommodation prices will
also be more expensive in following years according to what I have been told by
the university here in Scotland. Nevertheless, a good aspect about Brexit that
will be good for students is that the pound has been devalued in recent years,
so the exchange range between the euro and the pound will benefit us. My
suggestion will be not to leave the EU, because there will be serious
consequences in the Erasmus Programme, but as it seems impossible to reverse
this situation, I would probably try not to change the Erasmus and reinforce it
offering more opportunities to study in the UK. This reinforcement should be
done to improve the European educational system and try to avoid mixing
politics with education.

In
conclusion, our study aimed to investigate the effects of Brexit on the UK higher education system. We have
explored the negative effects of Brexit on both European students and UK
universities. We then discussed the potential advantages and strategies that
could be adopted to make up for the loss of the advantages of being inside the
EU and development of the UK education system. In general, we can see that
Brexit is having negative effects on both the EU and the UK particularly. In
the future,it is estimated that UK universities will have a decline in their income
of EU
students, financial aid from Europe and academic research resources. And UK
universities will also need to seek other alternatives, such asbroader international cooperation, to improve
their academic research quality in the long term.

martes, 3 de abril de 2018

Thanks for
the letter. What a coincidence that you want to go to the same place I’ve
recently visited for a holiday! I’m glad you want to visit Normandy for the
first time in your life and I assure you it will not disappoint you.

Normandy is
a very fascinating place and it’s considered one of the most beautiful regions
of France. I’ve been to Normandy three times in my life so I know the place
quite well. One of its most interesting places is “le Mont Saint-Michel”, a
small rocky island situated in the estuary of Couesnon River. It’s the second
most visited place in France (after the Eiffel Tower) and the main
characteristics of this place are its seascapes and its medieval castle from
the 15th century. I encourage you to take some nice pictures of this
wonderful place and climb up to the top of the castle to enjoy its views. The
second place I recommend that you visit is the coast of Normandy, where you can
find tourist cities, like Étretat, and historic beaches, like the Omaha Beach.

However,
the place you must especially go before leaving Normandy is Rouen. Rouen is
a city on the River Seine in the north of France and it’s the capital
of Normandy. I do not only encourage you to go because it’s the capital, but
because of its beauty and its huge history. Some interesting facts about this
place are for example that Rouen was the place where Joan of Arc was burnt or where Monet lived and painted for a long time of
his life.

Nevertheless, I don’t recommend that you go during
certain periods of the year where there are more tourists because you it can be
very stressful, like for instance, the months of July or August if you want to
go to “le Mont Saint-Michel” or Giverny, (where the famous gardens that the
impressionist painter Claude Monet used to paint can be found). Another fact to
take into account is the weather, because it usually rains, although it is not
usually very cold and you can enjoy the region most of the time.

In spite of
these little inconveniences, I hope you’ll enjoy the trip and I hope to be
hearing from you soon.

jueves, 1 de marzo de 2018

REVIEW OF LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

“Life
Is Beautiful” is a wonderful film of 1997 directed and starred by Roberto
Benigni. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, an Italian Jew who works in a library and
who has to use his imagination in order to protect his young child from the
horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. This film is partially based on the real
experience of Rubino Romero Salmoni, one of the few Jews who survived the Nazi
Holocaust.

The film can
be considered therefore as a tragicomedy, on the one hand there is the tragedy
of the historical event and on the other hand, the funny way that Guido uses
his imagination to distract and protect his child from the situation.In my view, it’s understandable the “Life is
beautiful” may generate controversy. After all, the nightmare of a Nazi
concentration camp is difficult to portray through comedy. But Benigni
exceeding all expectations, crafts a genuine film difficult to get over. The
characters of Guido Orefice and his child, Giosuè Orefice, are the most
successful and important, because they show us how the innocence of a child can
change our point of view in dramatic moments of the film. Another very
interesting point is how Guido divides his time between getting into troubles
with the Fascists and attempting to court teacher Dora (Benigni’s real-life
wife).

In my
opinion, this film is worth watching more that than once, because is a masterpiece
of the cinema. It’s a film to make you cry and laugh at the same time and it
has an historical background. I highly recommend it to watch with whoever you
want.

miércoles, 28 de febrero de 2018

The aim of this report is to outline the positive and
negative features of two different forms of advertising in Spain, television
advertising and Internet advertising. It will also consider the effectiveness
of these methods and make recommendations for improvements.

Television advertising

This traditional type of adverting is still one of the most
used forms of advertising by publicists in Spain. Furthermore, it usually fills
gaps between television programmes and, especially in the case of private
televisions, advertising aids networks to be financed.

Unfortunately, TV networks usually put these advertisements
in the middle of a film, breaking the plot of itself. Moreover, these
advertisements are often very long (around seven minutes), numerous and
repetitive, which can sometimes be a little irritating for the viewer.

Internet advertising

As advertising on television, Internet advertising is also
one of the most preferred ways of advertising by publicists, which, unlike
television a, is increasing more and more. Besides, its advertisements cost
less to be produced and they are shorter than on TV, as for instance, the
advertisements on YouTube which can be sometimes omitted.

However, this type of advertising also has problems. One of
its main issues is the competitive market. It usually depends on the product or
the video, but sometimes they can be incredibly expensive. Another important
issue is that having such a huge variety of advertisements, it may mean that
sometimes they do not reach to their target audience.

Recommendations

To discourage these types of problems, I would recommend
reducing the amount of advertisements on TV and making them more different and
innovative to attire again the attention of the viewers. Additionally, on the
Internet I would suggest controlling the type of video they want use in
advertising and, in this way, regulate the competition between the publicists.